this post was submitted on 25 Aug 2023
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Climate - truthful information about climate, related activism and politics.

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Discussion of climate, how it is changing, activism around that, the politics, and the energy systems change we need in order to stabilize things.

As a starting point, the burning of fossil fuels, and to a lesser extent deforestation and release of methane are responsible for the warming in recent decades: Graph of temperature as observed with significant warming, and simulated without added greenhouse gases and other anthropogentic changes, which shows no significant warming

How much each change to the atmosphere has warmed the world: IPCC AR6 Figure 2 - Thee bar charts: first chart: how much each gas has warmed the world.  About 1C of total warming.  Second chart:  about 1.5C of total warming from well-mixed greenhouse gases, offset by 0.4C of cooling from aerosols and negligible influence from changes to solar output, volcanoes, and internal variability.  Third chart: about 1.25C of warming from CO2, 0.5C from methane, and a bunch more in small quantities from other gases.  About 0.5C of cooling with large error bars from SO2.

Recommended actions to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the near future:

Anti-science, inactivism, and unsupported conspiracy theories are not ok here.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Stupidly click baity title. The only corporation that does not pollute is the one that doesn't produce anything. Sure, regulations such as carbon taxes are necessary to contain negative externalities, but if there's a demand for cheap products there will be a lowest bidder that will take all market share.

Lowering our consumption is unfortunately the way to make those companies pollute less.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

People don't want to hear about their personal responsibility to consume less, but it's true. Corporations aren't run by Captain Planet villains polluting for the same of pollution. They sell what people buy.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

You can buy a bag of bite sized croissants individually wrapped in plastic and wholey wrapped again. I'd like to think this was an isolated incident but the general census is this is what every one of those cunts does because it's cheaper and easier.

Sure consumers buy... But the producers bear the responsibility. There's only so much boycotting small groups can do. Others will still buy. The mentality of wrapping every fucking thing in plastic is what need to change.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

It is true that corporations need to change, but when that happens it means you also will have to change. So why wait? Change now. Use less overall, and look for better alternatives for what you still use.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

The sentiment here is good, but be careful not to fall into the "personal responsibility" trap that the fossil fuel and soda industry established back in the late 80s/early 90s. The sad truth is that personal responsibility in solving climate change is wishful thinking. The carbon footprint of all of the major corporations is so many orders of magnitude larger than any plausible percentage of individuals who do their part by being as environmentally conscious as possible that it doesn't matter unless we regulate them and to do that we have to redefine the laws of campaign financing and abolish Corporate Personhood aka, Citizen's United for a start.

It's pretty bleak. Source: was going to be an Enviornmental Scientist and I decided that was too depressing and life it too short.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Sure, regulations such as carbon taxes are necessary to contain negative externalities, but if there’s a demand for cheap products there will be a lowest bidder that will take all market share.

If the taxes are accounting for the externalities well enough, even the lowest bidder will be sustainable.